Soviet Archives - Collection of Government Documents on Workers

From the Collection of enactment and decrees of the government for 1921, Administration of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

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No 29 Article 143.

Decree of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars.

About requisitions and confiscations.

In order to establish a general procedure for requisitions and confiscations, the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars decided:

1.                   No property can be requisitioned or confiscated otherwise than in the manner prescribed by these rules.

2.                   A requisition is the compulsory alienation or temporary seizure by the state of property in the possession of individuals and companies, for a fee determined by the relevant authorities (Articles 9 and 10).

3.                   Confiscation is considered to be gratuitous compulsory alienation by the state of property in the possession of individuals and societies.

4.                   The right to requisition food items in the order of their procurement by the state, as well as items of economic production to meet the state needs is granted to the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy and the Peopleʹs. Commissariat of Food by affiliation, and both of these departments exercise their rights which indirectly, and through their local authorities.

Note . The law and order, requisitions and confiscations by other departments are determined by special decrees.

5.                   The right of confiscation belongs to the authorities indicated in the previous article, as well as to the Presidium of the All‐Russian Extraordinary Commission, the Revolutionary Tribunals and the Peopleʹs Courts, which apply this measure as punishment.

This right is exercised by special decisions of the indicated authorities, which decisions in writing are handed over to interested parties, in accordance with Art. 10 of this decree.

The Revolutionary Tribunals and Peopleʹs Courts incorporate their orders of confiscation in their judgments.

6.                   Requisition and confiscation of household items (furniture, clothes, shoes, dishes, etc.) is prohibited. In cases of especially acute public need for these things, the right to requisition or confiscate them belongs to a Special Commission consisting of representatives of: the Provincial Executive Committee, the Provincial Council of National Economy and the Provincial Food Committee, and subject to notification each time to the relevant central authorities.

7.                   Items, the storage of which is completely prohibited or allowed only in quantities not exceeding a known norm, are subject to immediate arrest by the administrative authority that discovered their storage.

The question of their requisition or confiscation is submitted to the permission of the institutions specified in Art. 4, 5 and 6 of this decree.

8.                   The requisitioned and confiscated property goes into ownership, and in case of temporary seizure ‐ at the disposal of RSF.S.R. and transferred to the authorities concerned at the latest. 3 days from. the moment of selection.

The bodies deciding on the requisition and confiscation, as well as the bodies to which the requisitioned and confiscated items are received, keep accurate records and inventory lists.

Note . A more detailed procedure for transferring to the relevant departments, as well as accounting and assessing, is established by the instruction of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Justice with the participation of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Food, the Supreme Council of the National Economy and the Peopleʹs Commissariat of the Workers ʹand Peasantsʹ Inspection, before the publication of which the general procedure provided for in Art. 7‐10 of this decree.

9.                   Payment for the requisitioned property is made by the government body that issued the requisition decree, within a month from the date of delivery of a copy of the requisition act to the person concerned.

10.                For each requisition, confiscation and seizure of property, a special act is drawn up at the time of taking away, specifying: 1) the formal grounds on which they are made, and 2) requisitioned, confiscated or seized property. The owner of the requisitioned or confiscated property shall be issued a copy of the above‐mentioned act within three days.

11.                In the case of confiscation applied as a punishment, the authorities making the confiscation are obliged to leave the owner of the confiscated items and his family members with the necessary household items and items of a profession and production in the amounts established in the general procedure, moreover, complaints about incorrect actions when bringing in execution of such confiscation, they are submitted to the Presidium of the Local Executive Committee, which within 3 days is obliged to consider the complaint on the merits.

12.                All previous decrees and decisions of both central and local authorities on requisitions and confiscations that are contrary to this decree are canceled.

13.                For violation of this decree, officials at fault shall be held accountable before the Peopleʹs Court.

Signed by:

Chairman of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin) .

Head of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars V. Bonch‐Bruevich.

Secretary L. Fotieva .

April 16, 1920.

Published in No. 85 of the News of the All‐Russian Central Executive

Committee of Soviets on April 22, 1920.